Thoughts on my situation?
Hi all,
Wanted to hear some thoughts regarding my situation, want to make sure that I am doing the best that I can, and not missing out on anything. My goal is IB, I am dead set on it, have been for some years now – I do want to note it's not for money or prestige, just genuinely like the grind and the cutthroat attitude within the industry.
Currently a rising sophomore at a semi-target. Double major in Finance and Accounting, in 6 different finance/IB related clubs, in a fraternity, and had a job up there as well. After my freshman year finished, I started to lock down on networking in mid/late May, made this massive excel sheet of all my alumni within banking at a few firms I am interested in, I want to shoot for some BB’s and an EB (GS, JPM, EVR, etc.), have been sending out tons of emails and have had 9 calls so far, almost all of them have went very good (8/10+). I was fortunate enough to get an Accounting internship over the summer. I work directly with the CFO and his financial analyst, which is quite fun. Also work at a fine dining restaurant directly after my day at the internship. I don’t mind the hours (8 am – 9:30/10 pm), honestly, it keeps me busy, and I enjoy it.
I have a few concerns, though. Am I too early to this networking thing? I want them to remember me and hopefully push me through when I apply. When do applications go live? Is there like a website or forum, or something that posts when they open? I was thinking of following up like every month/month and a half to keep my face fresh. Is there anything else that I should be doing over the summer? I am trying to get another remote internship and just rip that during the nights for some more experience. Have also been taking an Excel course to sharpen my skills. SIE maybe? PowerPoint course? Anything tbh, just want to maximize my chances.
Lastly, any advice that might help?
You are doing all of the right things but genuinley relax. You have the resume builders, you are stressing out. I would not worry about networking too hard until your sophomore year actually starts. If you burn through all of your contacts in the summer you won't have enough during the school year and they wont remmember you. Keep working hard, but stop stressing, and also apply everywhere - not just "good" banks.
Get laid somewhere in there and you seem to be set
Also just for the networking bit cycle starts in January so may have jumped the gun there but I’m sure it’ll be fine
Easy, checked that box last night.
For the networking - I do understand I started early, but I plan to follow up and do a few calls as time goes on, my thought process was to try and build a relationship with the individuals and truly show I'm interested, I am sure their inbox is gonna be flooded as recruiting starts, but I felt that if I could put a face to the name then I would have even the smallest edge - also its worth noting that almost every call I've been on has been very very good, 8/10 or higher. Is this a bad idea?
I wouldn't start networking until mid-September at the earliest; I just recruited this past cycle and burned through more contacts than I care to admit simply because I started too early in July/August
How was your process? When you networked, did you only have one chat per contact, would you be able to clarify? Sorry - still learning, all of this is a big deal for me (As for everyone ofc) but I just want to be in the best position I can be. Ty for commenting!
I reached out a maximum of three times per contact, with the occasional overreach of 4 if I wanted to follow-up with someone I spoke to at an on-campus info session that I just so happened to reach out to via email but they never responded.
The issue arose near the end of the networking cycle (effectively mid-Jan, but probably a bit earlier) and I realized that I was circling back to contacts that never responded to me in the first place back in August. So, in hindsight, it was a net negative for me in their eyes (most likely) because this random kid wouldn't leave them alone. I should've "saved" my reach-out to them later on, as opposed to trying to jump the gun (which didn't work for most cases).
The banks I received superdays at were the ones I followed the regular timeline for and networked in a regular timeframe. The ones I didn't were the ones I was too early to begin with.
Agree with others that you have been doing the right thing and that this will formally pick-up on a bit. I may also suggest also making sure to network directly with campus recruiting teams at banks where your school is a target and with non-core recruiting teams for banks where your school is not a target. It’s this group that will ultimately select who gets moved into an interview. These are the groups you want to focus on in my opinion.
Good to know - is a core recruiting team simply the groups that visit for on campus recruiting? I apologize if I should know this, still learning and going through the process. Ty for your comment though!
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